Tom's Guide Verdict
Pix-Star Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame 15-inch commands attention in any space with its large, bright display and backed up with unusual and fun extras to give the photo experience that extra kick.
Pros
- +
Handy email features
- +
Photos look sharp and clear
- +
Connects with major social networks
- +
Facilitates multiple frame accounts
Cons
- -
Low-resolution video playback
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Resolution: 1024 x 768
Dimensions: 15 x 11 x 1.2 inches
Wi-Fi: Yes
Touch screen: No
Remote: Yes
Built-in storage: 4GB
Motion sensor: Yes
Music player: Yes
Video: Yes
USB/SD slots: Yes/Yes
Cloud Services: Google Photos, Facebook, Flickr, Smugmug, Instagram, Dropbox, Shutterfly, OneDrive, Photobucket, Verizon
The Pix-Star Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame is, at its core, a digital picture frame, but is augmented by numerous smart internet-based extras that are designed to appeal to a more adventurous crowd seeking additional variety and flash from their image viewing experience. Check out the rest of our Pix-Star Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame review to see why there’s always something to make you smile.
Pix-Star Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame 15-inch: Price and availability
The Pix-Star Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame costs $219, and only comes in black. The brand also has a 10-inch version at just $134.
The frame is available on Amazon and on the Pix-Star official website.
Pix-Star Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame 15-inch: Design and interface
The Pix-Star Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame is not a paragon of style, yet its living-large appearance will not clash with any room décor. Its size and bright screen instantly command attention.
With the Pix-Star, handling is strictly hands off. There are no touchscreen controls with this frame; rather you operate it with a remote control and the buttons on the back of the frame.
The remote was mostly quick and responsive, though sometimes there were frustrating delays in responding to commands — you must make sure you aim the remote at the sensors on the front of the frame. The built-in motion sensor turns off the frame when no one is around to view it, so the frame does not waste energy displaying photos to an empty room.
An impressive thing is you can send up to 25 frames from a single account, where you can send and receive images and audio messages directly to and from connected frames. You can also view pictures from web albums, including Google Photos, Instagram, Dropbox, and Facebook.
What's more, this frame proves to be versatile. It comes with 4GB of onboard memory and supports USB thumb drives and SDHC/SDXC camera cards. The Pix-Star offers 4GB of space for your photos even when your frame is offline or is showing images from local storage like an SD card.
Pix-Star Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame 15-inch: Image quality
With its 4:3 aspect ratio on a 1024 x 768-pixel screen, images look crisp, bright, and clear despite not being the highest resolution of all frames out there. You can make adjustments to the LED backlit screen for brightness, hue, and contrast depending on ambient lighting. Flesh tones looked natural and the color is true to life, even viewing from different and extreme viewing angles without distortion.
So, here’s the fun part: You can use the frame to stream broadcasts from a number of international radio stations to play music over a slideshow — a feature that seems a little odd, but is actually quite intriguing and adds a bit of punch to your playlist. Many built-in transitions are also available to customize your image and video presentation.
Unlike many other more dedicated frames, you can use the Pix-Star kind of like a home assistant to set reminders, use the built-in calculator, and play simple puzzles, such as Sudoku, and other games.
Pix-Star Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame 15-inch: App
You can use the Pix-Star Snap app for iPhone or Android app to send photos from a connected phone directly to your frame. Friends or family who have the app can contribute photo collections to your frame remotely.
The trickiest part of setting up the Pix-Star was coordinating multiple frames. If you have more than one frame you can set up a special email address to sync photo collections with individual frames. Set up seemed a bit slow, as the frame took its time to respond to a USB stick full of photos and videos.
An even easier way to control your frame is via the Pix-Star web app, a huge dashboard that gives you all the controls you need for all your frames, web albums and connections.
Pix-Star Wi-Fi Cloud Digital Photo Frame 15-inch: Verdict
The Pix-Star is the best digital photo frame you can buy on the basis of its stunning photo quality. There’s nothing like a huge bright slideshow to dominate a room.
Beyond its commanding visual presence, the Pix-Star excels at connecting with a vast variety of social media, and using everything from email to web app to get any photo you want into the frame for viewing. In addition, it presents an unusual package of unexpected elements like international internet radio, games, and light home assistance to delight more than just the visual senses.
It's top notch resolution was followed closely by the Aura Mason Luxe Frame, that we highly rated for its impressive, high-res displays and swipe interface. The only reason why it missed first place was the lack of a motion sensor and internal memory - which our winning digital frame has.
Bear in mind, the Pix-Star is priced a premium cost for its features. However, if you were after a basic frame, the Atatat Digital Photo Frame will do a superb job at a value price of $59.
